Overwatch Timeline (with links!)

>R-30:

  • The Omnica Corporation begins to create omnics - robots designed to help humanity reach economic equality. Dr. Mina Liao is one of their leading designers. Omnica fails to meet promised quotas, and is investigated for fraud. The company is forced to dissolve and the omniums are shut down.

~R-30-25:

  • The Omnic Crisis: for reasons unknown, the omniums reactivate and start mass-production of war machines, declaring war on humanity.
  • Gabriel Reyes (Reaper), Jack Morrison (Soldier: 76), Ana Amari, Torbjorn Lindholm, Reinhardt Wilhelm and Dr. Mina Liao form the Overwatch strike team and take out key targets to end the war.

R-23:

  • Operation: White Dome. Torbjorn is badly injured on a mission, losing his right arm. Reinhardt saves his life, and Torbjorn gives him the honour of naming his youngest child. Brigitte Lindholm is born shortly after.

~R-20:

  • South Korea is attacked by a massive omnic that would become known as the Gwishin. Every few years, the omnic would return, having adapted and learned from previous attacks.
  • The Deadlock Gang is busted in an Overwatch sting operation. Deadlock Co-founder Jesse McCree is given the choice between joining Blackwatch or rotting in jail. McCree chooses Blackwatch.
  • The Australian Liberation Front, angry that their land had been given to the omnics as part of a settlement after the omnic crisis, sabotaged the omnium causing it to explode, irradiating the Australian outback.

~R-15:

~R-10:

  • Winston arrives on Earth and joins Overwatch. Hammond crash-lands in Australia and becomes a Scrapyard fighter (and eventually champion) in Junkertown.
  • Genji Shimada is almost murdered by his brother and is saved by Overwatch. He is offered a cyborg body in return for his help taking down the Shimada clan.

R-9:

R-8:

  • The Venice Incident - Several attacks on Overwatch facilities (including several attempts on Gerard Lacroix’s life) prompt Blackwatch to strike back against Talon; the plan goes awry and the public learns about Blackwatch. All Blackwatch agents are suspended; Genji later works with the main Overwatch strike team.
  • Akande Ogundimu kills his mentor to become the new Doomfist.
  • Public opinion of Overwatch turns sour, and a formal investigation into Overwatch’s activities is launched.
  • Slipstream pilot Lena “Tracer” Oxton is lost in time and subsequently rescued by Overwatch scientist Winston.
  • Overwatch shuts down the Anubis Project in Cairo, leading to the destabilization of the region.

R-7:

  • Talon finally succeeds in killing Gerard Lacroix by using his wife AmĂ©lie as a sleeper agent.
  • Null Sector uprising in King’s Row; Morrison disobeys orders from the British PM and Director Petras, sending in a strike team. The strike team succeeds in rescuing the hostages and stopping the uprising.

R-6:

R-5:

  • Genji leaves Overwatch and wanders the world, seeking inner peace.
  • The UN inquiry into Overwatch’s activities concludes and the Petras Act is passed, outlawing Overwatch activities.
  • Overwatch is officially disbanded.

R-4:

R-1:

Date Unknown

R:

R+1:

11 Likes

we don’t actually know this.

im pretty sure this happened before storm rising takes place

when did this happen?

a few things you forgot:

  • ana getting into fight with widowmaker and losing an eye, faking her own death.

  • london calling

  • sigma harnassing gravity, going insane, getting captured and manipulated by talon.

  • australia’s omnia fusion core blowing up and junkrat going a on world wide crime spree.

  • what ever happened during symmetra’s a better world comic, i don’t remember what it was tho.

also one thing id like to ask, was overwatches cinematic annoucement trailer canon? because talon was trying to steal back doomfist gauntlet but fails… but doomfist has it still.

This can’t have happened before Storm Rising because Sojourn sets up the mission with Morrison, and during the mission Mercy mentions Morrison and Reyes arguing (but no mention of a fight or the HQ being blown up).

Hero of Numbani.

I did miss those, I’ll fit them in (we don’t have a date for Sigma’s experiment though).

Winston and Tracer stop Reaper and Widowmaker from stealing the gauntlet, then it gets moved to Numbani and Doomfist steals it there. The museum from the cinematic is not the Numbani Heritage Museum.

4 Likes

Its a nice summary and can help estabilishing the lore forward. What i haven’t found in it is Liao creating Echo and being killed. And Genji leaving Blackwatch to join Overwatch between the Venice incident and Storm Rising. And the current Doomfist killing his mentor.

1 Like

Thanks, I’ll add those.

2 Likes

if you’d like a more interactive interface:

https://omnicreporter.wixsite.com/overwatch-timeline
(Is in my language, the italian. But I hope you like it)

I based my timeline on two timelines:

  • precise events, with known dates such as born or archive events;
  • imprecise events, where we have no real idea of when the events occur, but only hypothesize in what moments they may have happened before or after, by pure logic.

regarding sigma I have only one clue: his unused voicelines for winston in which he claims to know dr. harold winston.

That doesn’t tell us when his accident happened, only that he knew Dr. Winston.

it is true, but in an imprecise timeline we can hypothesize some things. it also speaks of the fact that “winston (the gorilla) was still young”. from these data we can hypothesize that sigma was not locked up before Winston was born, for example. obviously we are still talking about imprecise hypotheses regarding the “time” in which sigma was absent.

Just giving a friendly bump. Story discussion moves at a glacial pace, and this is an excellent primer for anyone interested in the lore. This should be pinned truly.